Naegiri Week 2019
by YoshiStack
Summary: My entries for Naegiri Week 2019. Complete as it's gonna get.
1. Day 1: Ill

**So! Clearly, I'm a bit late on jumping on the bandwagon this year, but I kind of had to be. For my own mental health sake I decided that while I would participate in the prompts, this year I wouldn't force myself to get them done within the week. This is my first chance to write for fun again really since September (I was swamped with writing assignments this semester!), so best not to make it stressful by self imposing deadlines, don't you think?**

**That being said, I have a small personal goal of trying to get all 7 done before the end of the year (Though if not I'll finish them when I finish them; I'm still doing all 7 regardless!)**

**All that out of the way, let's get on with the first day's prompt!**

* * *

Day 1: Ill

The room was dark, but she didn't need the lights on to see the sight standing before her: the Mastermind. Clad in a menacing mask and white coat, the Mastermind of this entire twisted idea of a game they'd been forced to endure stood before her only a few feet away, carrying a sinister glint in their eyes that she was certain wasn't coming from the mask's design.

They stood only a few feet from each other, having ended up that way after their first tussle, with her shooting into the room and shoving them as far as she could from their original spot, and taking all the kicks and blows that came with such an action as well. Now, they simply stared each other down, neither one making any sudden movements. Her eyes never left the tip of a very familiar looking knife that the mastermind held in their hands.

Her heart was racing. Her breathing was heavy. Her body was sore from the assortment of bruises she was certain were currently forming. Every inch of her was screaming to get out of there, to get out of this dangerous situation and to find safety. Her body demanded she show some measure of trepidation.

But she refused.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, a hazy yet familiar sounding, stern voice told her "_Never show your fear, Kyouko,_". She didn't know who or where she had heard them from, but she knew they were important; they were words she lived by.

And so she didn't. She clenched her fists to keep her fingers from trembling and kept her gaze focused squarely on the Mastermind. Kept her gaze focused squarely on their eyes. She wouldn't show her fear, _couldn't _show it.

Not when there was so much at stake.

The Mastermind seemed to hold her gaze for several minutes. They both stood as still as could be, neither making any sudden movements. And then, the Masterminds head turned just a bit; more importantly, so did the knife.

She held out an arm protectively. Not for herself, of course, but for who was behind her. For the person who's room she was in. For the original target.

Makoto Naegi.

The Mastermind froze again and held knife out toward her again. She didn't flinch at it. She held her ground. Another moment of stillness and silence passed. And then, finally the Mastermind took a step…

Backward. And then another, and another, and another. Until the door was to their back, at which point they grabbed hold of the door knob and quietly stalked out of the room. The tip of the knife was pointed at her the whole time while they moved. It was the last thing she saw disappear behind the door when it finally closed. A soft click echoed through the room. Silence followed.

They were gone.

She didn't let herself relax until a full three minutes had passed, and even then, only after she realized that the Mastermind wasn't currently able to view her through the cameras. She let her shoulders drop and she let herself sit on the edge of the bed. She could feel a headache coming on. Great. Just another problem to add to her ever growing list. She reached up and rubbed her temples.

Seeing the Mastermind out in the open like that… she hadn't quite expected that. She'd expected danger—the whole reason she'd come back down in the first place was because she felt something was amiss, almost like a sense for danger (And something about it was strangely familiar…). But to see the reason for that feeling being that the Mastermind had decided to take things into their own hands…

It had thrown her off more than she cared to admit.

For them to risk going out into the open like that and blatantly disregard their own rules—of which they'd been very strictly following until now—to try and kill someone without any reason…

They were getting desperate. For what exactly, she didn't know, but she fully intended on finding out.

An incoherent mumble and a slight movement on the bed pulled her out of her thoughts. Her gaze snapped back to the bundle of blankets lying on the bed behind her.

Speaking of that 'someone' who they'd tried to kill…

She stood up and looked down at him. His face was barely peeking out from the top of the blanket with a tired look on his face. He blinked up at her with a sleepy expression.

She clenched her fist at that. She knew he could be oblivious at times, but this was ridiculous. How could he not have heard or noticed any of what had happened in here?" "Naegi," she practically hissed. "Get up."

He blinked a few more times at her. His brows furrowed and finally he spoke up, "Kiri…?"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, though just barely. "Yes, it's me," she said, unable to keep the irritation from leaking into her tone. She'd played this game with him the other night and was in no mood for a repeat of it. "You need to get up." When he didn't even move, she continued, "Do you have any idea what even happened here? I told you that you need to start locking your door specifically to prevent something like this from happening to you. What would you have done if I hadn't shown up? Wh-" She stopped. He still hadn't moved.

Something was wrong.

"Naegi?" she tried, giving him a closer look. His face looked pale, standing out much more in the dark room, and his breathing sounded tired and ragged.

A pair of foggy looking eyes met her own, looking dull and unfocused. "Kiri…" He repeated, and this time she noticed how low and raspy his voice sounded. It wasn't like how he'd sounded when she'd woken him up last time; his voice had been sleepy sounding, but not like this.

No, this was something beyond just general tiredness.

Naegi mumbled out something else she couldn't quite make out before his eyes fluttered shut again. It was then she noticed the slight sheen on his forehead. She frowned at it, and reached to pull off her glove. Another look at him, even if he was sleeping, gave her pause though, and she thought better of it. She instead rolled back a sleeve on her jacket and pressed the skin of her arm against his forehead.

He was burning up. He had a fever, to be certain.

Because of course he did. Leave it to Makoto Naegi to somehow catch a bug when in a place completely isolated from the outside world. How he managed such a feat, she was certain she'd never know.

She pulled her arm back and reached for a tissue to wipe the sweat off of it, then started dabbing it against his forehead. When that was done, she threw the tissue into the waste basket a few feet away. She away toward the door, but stopped after a few steps. Her gaze wandered back toward the sleeping lucky student.

A minute passed, and then another. At the realization she was just staring at him for no particular reason, she felt her face warm and forced herself to look away. She chose to study the wallpaper to her left instead.

Why was she hesitating like this? He was feverish, yes, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She didn't have any medicine on her to help him through it. Sleeping it off was all he could realistically do, and he could manage that well enough on his own. He didn't need anything else from her, and she had other things to attend to anyway.

Her eyes flickered over to the camera in the room. It was still for now, but for how much longer? She'd taken a gamble coming down here at all—one that paid off of course, but still a gamble. She didn't know how much time she'd have left where she wasn't being monitored. She needed to get back upstairs now, back to her investigation. She needed to-

Naegi suddenly let out another sleepy, incoherent mumble and rolled onto his side, curling himself into a ball. He shivered, then stretched out again, leaving one of his shoulders exposed when he turned again. From there, she could see the edge of a familiar shade of green poking out from the edge of the blanket.

...He'd left his hoodie on.

...Of course he had.

She let out a huff and walked back over to him. "Just how reckless do you plan on being?" she asked. She got only another groan as a response. She rolled her eyes, then pushed him onto his back and pulled the cover off.

Immediately a chill wracked through his body. He tried to curl back on himself, but she reached forward and grabbed his arms, pinning them. He put up a pitiful fight, letting out a small whine as he tried (though only barely) to pull himself free. He tried to kick her away, but it was barely even a tap against her leg. Eventually, he stopped, seeming to resign himself to his fate and became still, save for his shivering. When she was certain he'd given up, only then did she unzip his jacket.

He let out another whine though when she began pulling one of his arms out from the hoodie. "Perhaps, if you'd actually stopped and thought about the consequences of your actions for once, I wouldn't have to do this," she chastised him. He huffed at her. "Don't give me that," she said. In his sleep, he made a face that resembled a pout, and once more he tried to keep her from pulling him out of his jacket. And this time it was rather annoying ,because he tried to push her off of him. Apparently, his delirium brought out a stubbornness she didn't usually see from the boy.

...Or perhaps he was just very attached to the jacket. She couldn't recall ever having seen him without it, after all. She resisted the urge to smile at the thought. Of all things to get worked up over, the idea of him getting more defensive over his jacket than anything else about him was a funny thought.

...And kind of a cute one.

She felt her face warm again. She shook her head to snap her out of whatever stupor this was she'd gotten herself into. She had a job to do. She needed to focus on that. No distractions. Trying to have a conversation with an unconscious, feverish person qualified as one of those.

She pulled Naegi's other arm out of his jacket, even in spite of his attempts to stop her, and pulled the jacket away from him. He was left in a plain looking t-shirt; he looked a lot smaller without the bulk of his jacket on. She knew he was smaller than the other boy, but the jacket helped to lessen that appearance slightly. Maybe that's why he was so attached to it?

She shook herself again. Not the time.

Once she backed away he curled into himself again, another chill going down his spine. She pulled the covers back over him, and his shivering diminished greatly. He let out a much more contented sounding sigh and wrapped the blankets around himself tight.

There. That should take care of that—hopefully he'd be fine by the morning. She took a few steps back and over toward the desk in the room. She draped his jacket over the back of the chair and started toward the door again. She'd done all she could do, certainly more than she'd intended on doing, and now she had to get back to her investigation before the Mastermind-

The Mastermind….

Her hand stopped above the doorknob. She glanced back at the camera again.

It still hadn't moved.

She looked back at Naegi again, still wrapped up in the blanket. He let out another drowsy murmur as he turned again, now having his back face her. A sinking feeling grew in her chest as a realization came over her: he was an easy target.

Truthfully, he'd always been one, but it was even more so the case in his current state. And after what had just transpired… that had her worried.

The Mastermind had planned on killing him. They would have succeeded if she'd been just a few seconds late. They probably would have succeeded even if he were more coherent, but as he was now… he was defenseless.

She clenched her fists at her side. She needed to get back her investigations. There were still so many parts of those dorms she needed to look over, so many nooks and crannies and crevices she needed to comb over. She needed to get back before the Mastermind could watch her every move again. And yet…

She needed him too.

Because truthfully, one of the only reasons she and the other five survivors had made it this far was because of him. Yes, she had the investigative ability to figure out the truth, but he… he had the ability to inspire people. To convince them of the truth. To get them to see reason and believe fully in what the evidence showed. He could break things down in such a way that made the disjointed pieces of logic make sense to the others. He had the social ability to do all those things that she couldn't. They balanced each other out like that.

And she liked that fact. And… though she would never admit it to him, she was growing to enjoy his company. There were few things she could take pleasure in while trapped in this school, and he was quickly growing to be one of them. She liked how he stuck to his beliefs, sappy and unrealistic as they could be sometimes, that he could push himself forward when they were challenged, and defend them when necessary. She liked how optimistic he tried to stay, even a situation as hopeless looking as theirs. She liked that her genuinely tried to get to know her, even though she had little she could share with him. She liked so many things about him she normally saw as a weakness in a person and...

And… she just liked _him_. It was as simple as that; she liked having someone she could call a friend. Trust wasn't something she could give out often or easily. She'd been burned by doing such a sing before—literally—and couldn't afford to do so easily again. And yet somehow, he'd earned just a bit of hers.

They couldn't lose that. _She _couldn't lose that. She didn't _want _to lose that—it was too important.

Her shoulders heaved with another sigh. "It seems you've left me no choice, Naegi," she said. She walked away from the door again and back over to the desk. She pulled the chair she'd draped his hoodie over out and sat down in it. She folded her arms across the desk, then let her head rest against her hand as she glanced between Naegi and the door.

She was going to have to watch over him. The Mastermind probably wouldn't come back so soon after having their plans foiled, but she couldn't be certain of that. So, better safe than sorry.

...But just until the morning. Then she would get back to work.

The sound of Naegi shuffling in the blanket caught her attention again and pulled her gaze over to him once more. He let out another muffled noise as his head poked out from the top of the blankets. His eyes were open again, and he squinted to look at her from where she sat.

"What are you…?" He was interrupted by a few strong coughs.

She suppressed the small smile trying to form on her lips. "Go back to sleep, Naegi," she ordered, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. He blinked at her once, twice. Then unceremoniously let his head fall back onto the pillow like it was a bag of bricks.

At that, she did let the smile show. "I'll be right here…" she whispered. The Mastermind wouldn't be getting a second shot at this particular plan.

Not if she had anything to say about it.


	2. Day 2: Puzzle

**I actually wrote something under 1000 words. It's a miracle.**

**…No for real that's like actually an accomplishment for me.**

**Although in retrospect I kind of wish I picked a slightly different focus on this, given how it feels a little similar to my first days prompt, but oh well! Writing from her perspective is always hard for me anyway, so practice is good.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Day 2: Puzzle

Makoto Naegi was a puzzle.

Well, perhaps that wasn't fair for her of all people to say. Of everyone trapped in the school, she was well aware that she was the biggest puzzle of them all, both to the other participants and to herself. But Naegi? He was a bit of a puzzle himself too.

And really he shouldn't be. Because he was so open about everything he did. His motivations, his desires, his thoughts—all of them were so clearly laid out by him, usually without him even realizing it. His face spoke a thousand words. And half the time you didn't even need that much, given how he was constantly muttering his thoughts out loud to himself. He was so open and so very naive and just so… average, that there shouldn't have been anything puzzling about him. She'd pegged him as all those things shortly after he'd stumbled in the entryway on the first day and had been prepared to write him off as just another nothing more than those things.

But then Maizono died. And he was accused of killing her. And he reacted exactly as she thought he would.

...Until he didn't.

Because while he certainly reacted as expected—tearing up and shouting back against accusations of his involvement in her death, and looking absolutely devastated when he realized nearly no one believed him—he never broke down. When she'd given him one last glance as she'd exited the gym, she didn't see him with an utterly crestfallen, lost, or hopeless expression as she initially assumed she might have.

Instead, she watched his rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, then look back up with pure determination burning in his eyes. Determination which helped him not only reach the truth and convince the others of it, but helped him accept it as well.

And that's what was so puzzling about him.

Because where he was naive and oblivious, he was also observant and thoughtful.

Where he meekly tried to keep peace between others and bowed his head when his attempts failed, he could also be extremely passionate and commanding, shouting and convincing others of the truth.

Where he looked and acted so completely and utterly average, he made choices that were anything but. Where most would choose to move on from death in this situation, letting the memories of those gone fade away, especially for the murderer, he chose otherwise. He chose the far more difficult yet noble path of keeping their memory with him, casting them blame away from them and onto the Mastermind of this 'game'.

He subverted her expectations. He did so the night of by demonstrating his commitment to his ideals by making a bittersweet joke. He even continued to do so now, as she watched him from the end of the hall.

She could see him walking with Asahina with what looked to be a small tower of donuts in hand. The swimmer was cheerfully skipping along and chatting just a few paces ahead of him, completely oblivious to how he was struggling to keep the treats balanced. But even in spite of that, Naegi was keeping a bright smile on his face as he tried to keep them balanced—a genuine smile. Yet another sight that was puzzling.

Because on one hand, , it made sense his smile would be genuine, because she was fairly certain the boy wouldn't be able to tell a convincing lie to save his life, let alone mask his facial expression. But one the other, to have one only a few days after losing someone he'd become close too…

What a puzzle indeed.

She watched for a few more seconds until the inevitable happened.

_3...2...1…_ she counted in her head.

She heard a yelp and opened her eyes to find Naegi with one of his shoes untied sprawled out on the floor, the donuts scattered all around them. Asahina let out an exaggerated gasp and immediately started fretting, first over the donuts, then on Naegi. Both of them laughed a moment later. He sat up rubbing at his head with one hand and waving another at her as he hurriedly assured her that he was fine and that he was sorry for dropping their snack.

His eyes wandered away from Asahina and over behind her. They locked with her own, and immediately his gaze softened. She could see clearly there: there was still hurt in his eyes. He was just choosing to keep moving forward.

Anything but average.

He bid the swimmer a hast farewell with a promise to try whatever it was they had been trying again later, then bounded over to where she stood. His smile returned, albeit more shyly as he approached her. When he made it, he stood in front of her, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a little rabbit as he asked her if she wanted to do something together.

She was silent as she studied him, then she pushed herself off the wall she'd been leaning against and started walking toward the stairs. When she noticed he wasn't following, she turned back and urged him to keep up. He didn't hide his surprise well and hurriedly tried to match her long strides.

Yes, Makoto Naegi was certainly quite a character. An oxymoron of beliefs and personality mixed into the most hopelessly average person here. He was going to require more investigation than she'd initially thought.

What a puzzle he was.

It was a good thing she liked solving puzzles so much then.

(Well, she _thinks_ so at least)


	3. Day 3: Stars

**"Hopefully I'll get them all done before 2020″ I said.**

**What a liar I am. Oh well. Let's just blame it on Pokemon and my hand feeling like death for awhile there.**

**And look at it this way: more Naegiri content for longer. (And this one is kind of fitting to release today, given certain news of a rerelease)**

**All that being said though, this one requires a bit of context. I'm a mod on the kokichi-and-co-imagine-blog on tumblr, and one day we got a request for a Naegiri Mystery Dungeon AU. PMD is my favorite Pokemon series, so of course I jumped on it, and created a gen 7 (Gen 8 hadn't been announced yet) Mystery Dungeon featuring the THH cast as the main characters, with Junko serving as the main antagonist who wants to use the Ultra Beasts for... Idk, reasons of despair (It's constantly a work in progress)**

**This is a rough estimate of a scene that takes place after Junko reveals her true colors, and disappears along with Mukuro, and the SDR2 characters, and serves as the moment that occurs in PMD games where the main character and their partner are forced to leave the main hub area behind for the sake of plot (IT's different in each game. You know what I'm talking about if you play PMD)**

**Makoto is a Rockruff, Kyouko is an Espeon**

* * *

Day 3: Stars

It was dark out. The room was covered in the thick blanket of darkness that night brought with it, only interrupted by a few small streams of light from the full moon and stars hanging in the sky above.

Makoto cracked an eye open to take a look around in their darkened room. Kyouko was still curled up in her bed next to his, though he hadn't needed to look to know that. He could still feel the edge of her fur against his. He bit back the urge to smile at her sleeping form (He rarely ever saw her actually relax in the short time he'd known her) and instead pulled his gaze around to scan the room. It was empty besides to two of them.

He let his eyes fall toward toward the doorway that led into the hall. No one was there from what he could see. But… better safe than sorry, he thought. He closed his eyes and lifted his ears, straining to hear anything going in the building.

Some snores. The occasional rustling of hay that made up the beds. A few cries of some Pokemon flying overhead, most likely the Noctowl he'd seen around before. Nothing to indicate anyone was still up.

Well. This was as good as it was going to get.

Slowly, Makoto pulled himself up to his feet. He carefully pulled his front two paws off and stepped off the bed as quietly as he could. So far so good… Just a few more steps and—

Crunch

Immediately he felt himself stiffen as he placed a foot in the wrong spot. A soft crunching sound resonated. It wasn't loud at all, but he knew well that it could still be loud enough. His eyes darted over to his partner.

One of her ears twitched.

He held his breath. Memories of a past encountered swirled in his head as he silently willed her not to stir.

"I'm a light sleeper; a side effect of all my training, I imagine," she'd said to him weeks ago, in the aftermath of him running outside in a fit because of one of his many nightmares that week. Then, though he'd tried to hide them, he'd counted that fact about her as a blessing and had been relieved she wanted him to confide in her. Now though, he was cursing that quirk.

An eternity passed. Then another. Kyouko's breathing remained the same, deep and even. She didn't move again.

He almost let out a sigh of relief but caught himself. He kept his jaw clenched shut and instead padded toward the door with the lightest footsteps he could make. He didn't dare let himself walk normally again until he was well out the doorway of their room and around the corner at the end of the hall.

He looked around the entrance hall before trotting in, wanting to be certain no one saw him. As his ears had led him to believe, no one else was up and moving. He made his way toward the cubbies where bags were stored, stopping in front of the two assigned to 'Team Hope'. He pulled his bag out and opened it.

Some apples, plenty of berries, a few wands and orbs, a map… All just as he left it. Thank god no one decided to tamper with his bag again. He nodded at it. It should be enough for this, he figured. And he could always find more along the way. He seemed to have a knack for finding these things in the dungeons themselves. He pulled the bag on and started to turn to the exit. He caught a glance at Kyouko's bag sitting in the slot next to his.

He hesitated.

Was this even a good idea, doing this without her?

He glanced back at the hallway he'd come out of. There was still time. He could rework this plan. He could go back in there, wake her up and-

No, no. He shook his head and pulled his eyes from the hall. "She's already done so much for me, definitely way more than she had to. I can't ask her to do this too,"He'd go forward as he planned. She probably wasn't going to be happy about it in the morning, but he had to do this.

Sorry, Kyouko.

He took off for the door before anything else could distract him.

Hope's Peak at night was still a bit of a strange sight to him. Without anyone moving around, talking and chatting or moving around the town, it looked a little empty. Hope's Peak wasn't a bustling hub of activity during the day of course, being a remote mountain town didn't lend itself to that kind of thing, but the lack of anyone gave it a very unsettling aura to it.

Of course, the lack of some of the usual inhabitants was something he could give Junko and Mukuro credit for…

Still, he mused as he walked down the steps of the Detective Society, there was a kind of beauty to the town at this time. He looked overhead at the stars above him and gave a small smile at them. Undoubtedly, Hiro would try and tell him some kind of nonsense about their positions and his destiny for a ridiculous amount of money if he were awake right now.

Thankfully though, he wasn't. He was asleep, just as every other vendor in town was right now. Even the lights at Celeste's cafe, a place usually packed with visitors, were out, and the building was dark and empty.

He slowed down as he reached the bottom of the steps and passed by each building slowly, taking the sight of each of them in. So many people here had helped him so much, more than any of them probably knew. Celeste, Hifumi, Hiro, Leon, Sayaka….

And that wasn't even mentioning those within the Detective Society. He knew he was never going to be able to begin to properly repay everyone there for all they'd done (Byakuya was sure to remind him of that fact in one way or another every day).Especially Kyouko; his debt to her was the biggest of them all.

All the more reason he had to do this, he decided after a moment. Everyone here had done so much for him. It was time to do something for them instead. He swallowed back the pang of guilt and ran forward towards the gates of Hope's Peak. From here he'd have to go down the mountain trail, and then make his way to-

He heard a rustling sound behind him and froze in his tracks. He tensed, first out of instinctive fear of being attacked, and then for another reason that made his blood run cold.

Had someone heard him? Had Kyouko heard him?

He gulped. He really hoped not.

Slowly, he turned around only to find… nothing. No one was there. His muscles relaxed and he tilted his head in confusion. Had it just been the wind? Then he heard it again along with… snoring? He turned to look in the direction it came from.

It was Hiro, lying on the ground fast asleep, mumbling something and snoring very loudly. Makoto let out a breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding.

It was just Hiro. He almost laughed; of course Hiro would do something like that to freak him out. His own little send off gift without even being aware of it.

Of course.

He shook his head. Enough distractions. He had a job to do, and he couldn't do it sticking around here. He turned back around to the gate, only for his blood to run even colder. For the path out the gate wasn't empty like it had been before.

He was now returning the gaze of a very irritated looking Espeon.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Makoto shrank back with a cringe. "I… er, uh… well…" he stammered out.

Her intense, piercing glare never wavered as she stepped forward closer to him. "Because it looks to me like you decided—against all common sense or any degree of reason—to run off suddenly in the middle of the night, _without telling anyone._" The emphasis she put on those words was accentuated with another few steps towards him, until she was just a couple feet in front of him. He winced. "Or, am I wrong?"

He awkwardly shuffled and looked down toward his feet. "W-well, no… not really…" he admitted.

Her eyes narrowed at his confession. "And why," she started, "would you decide to try and do such a thing, against any of the better judgement that I know for a fact that you have?"

A beat of silence passed between them.

What was he supposed to say that wouldn't make her even more mad at him? Was there anything that he could say that wouldn't?

No time to dwell on that now though.

He swallowed thickly and looked back up at her, finally looking her in the eye. "Because someone has to," he said.

Her expression didn't change.

He decided to take it as a sign to continue. "Junko is out there somewhere, doing terrible things and making even worse plans that could hurt so many innocent Pokemon out there, and we have no idea where that is. Someone has to go out and look for her," he said. The longer he spoke, the more confident he became in his words. "And I know they said the Detective Society would look into it but… after everything that happened, with her and Mukuro and the 77th Branch disappearing with them… You and I both know they don't have enough manpower to spare to look into it too much. And so… this." He finished, motioning with his head to his bag.

Kyouko was quiet, giving him a once over. Her eyes closed with a thoughtful look on her face. He could feel the anxiety at her silence start to creep up her spine, but swallowed it back and held strong.

"I'm glad to see that you haven't lost all common sense in that head of yours." She finally said, and for a split second he swore he saw her mouth twitch upward. He couldn't hide his surprise at it. "I agree with you that something needs to be done about her, regardless if the Society agrees to help or not. But, be that as it may," she continued, "Why does it have to be _you_ that finds her?"

"Eh!?" He squeaked.

"What makes you think that you're the only one that can stop her?" she continued.

"W-wait hold on a sec! I never said that!" He protested. There were so many others that were so much stronger than him, Kyouko included. He knew that well. How in the world would she come to the conclusion that he thought otherwise?!

"You didn't have to. Your actions said it for you," she explained. "Deciding to go after her is one thing, but you chose to do it in such a secretive way. Running off at night without a word to anyone or even a note left makes it seem to me like you don't trust anyone else to do this."

Makoto couldn't help but gape at her. "N-no! No, that's not it at all!" He shook his head so hard it almost felt like he was going to give himself whiplash. "I don't think that at all! I'd love to get as much help as I can get normally, you know that! But this… going out and finding her is going to be dangerous. And… I can't justify asking anyone else to put themselves in danger for my idea, not after they've done so much for me." He looked away from her again. "You included."

Another moment of silence. Maybe, she would finally get what he was going for. Surely she had to see what his reasoning was now. The thought he'd put into this decision and how he could come up with this solution.

And then, interrupting his musings, he heard her let out a low chuckle. He snapped his head up to see her shaking her head at him.

"Of course you would answer in such a sentimental way," she muttered in such a quiet tone he almost didn't hear her. "But if that's your plan to try and get rid of me, I'm afraid you're going to have to try much harder than that." She turned around and started walking down the path. "Are you coming or not?"

...What?!

He couldn't even vocalize his confusion to her, instead just standing there, head tilted with a look of utter bewilderment at her words. "What are you..?! That's not… I never… I wasn't trying to-" A flick of Kyouko's ear and and sharp look back at him shut him up.

"You said it yourself: this search for her won't be easy. While I admire your forethought to others, it's foolish of you to think you could do this on your own; no matter how well you've adapted, you're still new at investigations in general, as well as this world. You're going to need help." Her expression softened a bit. "And as you've made clear to me many times: you and I are a team now, for better or worse. We do this together, right?"

'You and I are a team now'... the very words he'd said to her so many times to try and get her to open up. He always assumed she'd brushed them off and forgotten them, just like so many of his attempts to get to know her more. BUt evidently, that wasn't the case.

He smiled. Of course they were a team. How could he ever let himself forget that.

"You're right," he said with a nod. "We do this together." He hurried to join her, and they continued down the mountainous path.

"So, explain to me what your plan is exactly," she said.

"Uh, see about that…" he let out a sheepish laugh.

She sighed. "Proving my point exactly…" And then she started laying out a plan, where they would go, the towns they would visit and investigate, all of it.

As he listened to her talk, Makoto glanced up toward the night sky. The stars still shone brightly over head. And as he watched them gleam above, he couldn't help but smile.

It wasn't part of the plan, but truly, he was happy Kyouko had intervened. He'd been anxious about how this would go before, knowing it had to be done, but not being sure if he could do it. But with her by his side, he was confident that they could do this.

Because together, they could do anything.


End file.
